This is about life in emerging residential communities on OMR. Would like to see this emerge as an interactive forum to raise issues, discuss ideas and share info. on the pluses and pitfalls in off-city living.
Our friend Neeraj Singh has created a Facebook page - MySynergy - that is open to all residents, notably, tenants. Any resident of Mantri Synergy, with a Facebook account,can join MySynergy Group. My sense is, there can be more than one MySynergy group member from a given family. Husband, wife, their sons/daughters may have individual Facebook accounts. What is more, we must recognize that each of them may well a mind of their own on issues impacting our community. If the page admin.(Neeraj) knows you live in Mantri Synergy;and if any group member identifies/invites someone as part of our residents community,there should be no hassles in becoming a MySynergy member. Am I right, Neeraj ?
A couple of college boys (KSR College, Tiruchengode) hit upon a
community initiative to address food wastage by customers in
restaurants. They got a poster printed , showing photo of a needy
child with empty plate. The message : ‘Please don’t waste food….wrap it’.
Palaniappan, and Mohammed Ali, both engineering students, with
Merwin Wesley, found waste of food by people visiting restaurants
unacceptable and decided to do something about it. The boys designed
and printed about 4,000 ‘don’t-waste-food’ posters and distributed in
restaurants and eating house in several Tamil Nadu towns, through a
network of volunteer students. They have mobilised over 100 volunteers
in 17 towns.
Muhammad Ali – 0-8122139893- and Palaniappan – 0-9500488803 - registered a society SEEDS.
They conduct awareness programme to curb wastage of food, household
energy consumption and conserve other resources. Their student
volunteers visit old age homes. With guidance from college alumni,
SEEDS conduct counseling sessions in schools for Plus 1 and Plus 2
students on choice of courses and subjects for higher education.
Interestingly, the focus of SEEDS initiative is on smaller towns –
Dharmapuri, Erode, Darapuram, Bhavani, Attur, Mettur, Udmelpet, Hosur
and Sathy. They have volunteer representation in some bigger cities as
well – Trichy, Selam, Coimbatore, Tirupur, and Chennai (volunteers –
Sibi Rajan and Rahul).
Palaniappan (left) and Muhammad Ali Photo: M. Balaji, The Hindu
SEEDS approached 20 schools in Mettupalayam, Erode and Tirupur,
asked students to come up with 15 suggestions to conserve electricity…
School students are involved in household energy auditing in their
neighbourhood, and community tree-planting in their localities. During
Deepavali, SEEDS ogranised door-to-door and distributed 5,000
pamphlets on how firecrackers pollute environment.
Says SEEDS president Muhammad Ali:
“We don’t approach the Government; instead we go to people. They have
supported us. Some people have thrown the pamphlets back on our faces,
we take it in our stride.”
Secretary Palaniappan: “I used to spend my pocket money on mobile
recharge and snacks. Now, I save it to buy gifts for school children as
we conduct a number of competitions for school students.”
At our Sunday 'gupshup' we discussed the idea of OMR Greens participation in the upcoming Chennai Bird Race. A few of us owning bicycles - Pandey, Sridhar, Gopalan - endorsed the idea of taking a bicycle ride along the lake on Kelambakkam-ECR road while birdwatchers from various parts of the city turn up on this stretch of road. Kelambakkam-ECR Road is listed among 30 designated spots for birdwatchers..
Those with bicycles could send a e-mail in response to this message. To give us an idea of the number we can expect for OMR Greens 'Awareness Ride'.
Among the birds sighted on the lake along Kelambakkam-ECR are: Grey Pelicans, Painted Storks, Egrets, Cormorants, Sandpipers, Terns (Whiskered, Little and Caspian), Black Shouldered Kite, Eurasian Curlew, Little Ringed Plover, Shikra, Kestrel, Pied Crested Cuckoo, Marsh Harrier, House Swallow, Bee-eater, drongo, Rufous Treepie etc.Indian Robin,Sunbirds, Prinias and Warblers. The day-long birdwatching event, Sunday Dec,30, is organised by Madras Naturalists Society, HSBC and Yuhina Eco-Media.
Plan is for OMR Green-ers to start from Mantri Synergy around 8 a m,, cycling all the way up to the tollgate on ECR end and be back, by 9.30. Blokes like me who can't bike, or ride doubles, would like a lift in someone's car that follows the bicycle riders.
For birdwatch enthusiasts who wish to register their names for Chennai Bird Race (registration free) could call 9840090875 , 9962515479.
E-mail chennaibirdrace@gmail.com
To register log on www.blackbuck.org.in
I don't suppose very many Chennai residents own a Ninja 650R. We have a bike enthusiast at Mantri Synergy who has the 2013 model. He joins the exclusive Ninja-650 club. Its membership in Chennai doesn't exceed 15. Out of curiosity I asked the owner the machine how much he paid. The figure he mentioned for the pricey two-wheeler is nearly as much as my budget - Rs.6 lakhs - for a new car I plan to buy..
Asters Childcare, daycare centre at Mantri Synergy clubhouse have setup Infant Jesus Crib. Mr Prem Krishna of the Daycare, in e-mail to parents, says the Christmas tree at their centre has been decorated by children with bulbs and bells. Christmas Day, (Tuesday) is the day of gifts left by Santa, for the children visiting the Daycare between
10.00 and 11.00 a m.
I admit to a split within my family over this community Pilliyar that was
installed unannounced on our residential campus, Mantri Synergy. My wife
and I were not on the same page on the idea of placing a Ganapathy idol
in a secularist community, notably, when objection was raised from
within the community.
It all started a couple of months back , with a group of residents buying a
Ganapathy idol from Mammalapuram, for Rs.16,000. They were then looking for
space in our complex to install the idol. When the issue came up for
discussion in our in-house web portal serious objections were raised to
the idea. And nothing further was heard, for well over a month, till
last weekend when most Mantri residents were taken by surprise to find a
Pilliyar idol in place on the lawns of Senior Citizens Area.
A secretive group of residents had worked overnight to get this done. Idol installation puja was held early Sunday morning in the presence of a select group of residents. The event managers may have scored a tactical win, by resorting to hush-hush and questionable means. What they, perhaps, didn't realize, or chose to ignore, is that their action gives cause for mutual mistrust, social disaffection ; it drives a wedge within the community at varied levels - between neighbours, colleagues in OMR Greens, and even within families (such as mine).
I wonder if the means they adopted pleases Lord Ganapathy. But I can say it hasn't pleased the Pilliyar 'bakhtas'. Many of them who supported the move and contributed money for the cause felt deeply let down by such unannounced idol installation ceremony, carried out in a partisan manner. The Ganesha event managers have managed to create cracks in the community at many levels.
We had Christmas trees coming up on common space at Mantri Synergy over the weekend. Morning walkers om Monday were pleasantly surprised to see on the lawns of the central park a 10 foot tall plastic tree decorated with colourful Christmas bulbs and glittering stars. Two other Christmas trees, not so big, are in place at our frontyard and the Clubhouse entrance.
Wayside halt on our way back from trash-busting at Kelambakkam
A neighbourhood weekly - The Chennai Outlook (see Page 8) - carries in its inaugural edition a feature - OMR Greens - A New Beginning for a clean OMR. The title sums up our agenda.
A clean OMR is possible . if we adopt a cluster approach to effective waste disposal and pre-laid draining system for discharge of sewage water treated at source with individual residential communities. While developers build sewage treatment plant within communities, they don't care about laying neighbourhood pipeline to carry their treated sewage discharge. It is pachayat's job, they say. Panchayat, on its part, cites lack of funds to take on such project. Developer-panchayat particiapation is the way to go.
The story is the same in respect of waste disposal strategy. Those of us in an apartments complex adopt 'outsource and forget' waste disposal policy. We don't care where or how our outsourced garbage is disposed of by service contractors. One guess is, much of our solid waste end up by the side of Muthukkadu lake, along the road connecting Kelambakkam with ECR.
OMR Greens would like to see a waste-to-energy conversion plant (like the Mamallapuram one)
to serve a cluster of communities. We need to bring together,area-wise,
residents, property developers and the panchayats for making this
possible. Trash-busting is our way for mobilising public support for
long-term solutions to issues of common concern.
I couldn't help feeling let down by the Kelambakkam panchayat. We were
hoping the garbage collection staff would turn up with their tri-cycles
to carry the garbage we collected, when OMR Green volunteers, went
trash-busting on Kelambakkam Hight Street.
A small, but determined, group (one shy of the double digit number),
carrying our cleaning gear, took out an 'Awareness Walk', from Mantri
Synergy main gate to Kelambakkam panchayat chief's office. Starting our
trash-bust routine at the bus stop near panchayat chief's office, we
worked our way to the road crossing at the market. The trash we
collected was heaped up on the roadside, to be collected by the
panchayat garbage collection staff. They didn't show up. Nor did the
Panchayat president, Mr G Venkatesan, on whose request, in the first
place, we went trash-busting to Kelambakkam.
Mr Venkatesan had also offered to mobilize a group of local residents to
join OMR Greens in trash-busting. What we found, in fact, were knots of
curious onlookers hanging out on street-side, watching us cleaning up
their trash.
Stalwin was among the few who engaged us in conversation, and on
learning of our agenda, offered to become an OMR Green member. Mr
Stalwin, an engineer in a local company, said he would spread our
message and mobilize a local group for taking up bigger issues -
stemming lake pollution, relocating a local chemical unit - requiring
many more green activists.
Our Kelambakkam 'do' was a learning experience. For instance, we ran into a rag-picker couple who carried their kids - Kartika, 2, and Kavya, 9 months - in the garbage tricycle as they went about their daily rounds - 'there is no one at home to look after the kids'.. And then there was Santhosh, not older than my 7-year-old grandson, who helped his elder brother Ramesh in rag-picking. Asked why he didn't go to school Santhosh said, 'I don't know how to read'. But wasn't that the purpose of schooling - 'teaching kids to read and write' ? That was a Q that ought to be addressed to Santhosh's parents.
Disappointed with the lack of response from Airtel when we wanted additional connection for our third room, I opted for Tata Sky, only to face a hassle about placement of the Dish. The installation technician ruled out balconies for fixing the Dish in our 9th floor apartment in Mantri Synergy. . We had to seek a favour from our 12th and top-floor neighbour who owns the terrace rights. The developer has made money selling terrace space to apartment owners on the top-floor, whether or not the top floor apartment owners require such space on payment. Whether it is right and legally proper for developers to transact what is essentially common area is quite another matter.
When you go in for Tata Sky the dealer doesn't tell you about about the technical aspect of fixing the Dish. What is worse, both dears at Kelambakkam were affirmative in response when we asked if the Dish could be fixed in our our balcony. Shouldn't dealers be required to guide customers properly ? Shouldn't they consider hiring part-time staff for site evaluation before selling Tata Sky or any other DTH package to residents in high-rise buildings.
As of now, there is no co-ordination among the TV dealer, installation staff (outsourced by Tata Sky folk), and the company's web-based customer service that mainly operates as a re-charge mode. . .
I don't know if it is feasible for Mantri Synergy or other high-rise buildings to go in for DTH service provider who can put up a mega dish on common terrace space or on top of the clubhouse, and feed individual apartments their preferred channels. In such an arrangement we can even have a in-house channel, in which residents welfare associations can telecast their announcement and activities. This would provide the association scope for revenue through ads.. And then we can have movies on this channel..
We could do with feedback on feasibility of in-house cable facility, cost involved in setting it and operating it and the licensing procedure, if any.
Monday morning sun throws its spotlight on Rosedale apartments at Padur on OMR. This is in refreshing contrast to yesterday morning when mist obscured the towering residential structure, as viewed from across the road. It is as if the Sun is compensating Rosedale om Monday for its absence on Sunday.
We woke up this Sunday to misty morning. Some of the walkers had pulled out their sweater and shawl. Visibility was so poor that the towering Mantri Synergy buildings got obscured in haze, as viewed from OMR, And the Rosedale apartments across the road was less than a hazy outline.. For more photos see OMR Resident Facebook page.
Much of the six-lane Rajiv Gandhi Salai (OMR) is under a foot deep water after sharp shower because it lacks a proper stormwater drainage system. The Hindu, in a Page 2 article by Deepa H Ramakrishnan, says: "Though the detailed project report of the road had proposed construction of drains to carry stormwater, this was not implemented. The Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC) gave it up and the State government said that local bodies would construct the drains.
"The road was constructed at a cost of Rs. 400 crore and the average collection from the toll plazas touches Rs. 3 crore per month. TNRDC also gets income from advertising revenue. The drains would cost just Rs. 15 crore, but according to sources, the company did not have adequate funding to construct them.
"Though the road became a tolled facility in December 2008, construction of footpaths and ducts has yet to be completed. The road also does not have bus shelters...
